Neil Warnock on Cardiff City's 'toughest week of the season' and the international stars who are struggling for Sheffield Wednesday clash
Thursday 17th October 2019
The Bluebirds have three difficult games in the space of 10 days
Neil Warnock believes he is preparing his Cardiff City side for what will be the "toughest week of their season".
The Bluebirds welcome Sheffield Wednesday to Cardiff City Stadium on Friday night, before facing Millwall and south Wales rivals Swansea City next week.
That 10-day period could have a big bearing on how the team moves forward for the rest of the season and Warnock believes his side will face few more difficult spells over the course of the season.
"You've got to say, with all the travelling involved up to London as well, it will probably be the toughest week we will have this season," the Bluebirds boss said.
"I will have to look at using the squad. Usually I just work on one game at a time, but this is a big week and I think we will have to use the squad over the next three games."
Warnock might well be forced into a couple of rotations, with the manager revealing a couple of key stars are yet to return from the international break.
Ahead of the international break, the Bluebirds boss was furious at the TV schedulers for once again allocating them the Friday night slot, but held his hands up to say he had the option to play the game on Sunday and afford his returning stars two extra days of rest.
But he thought the players would be back from international break on Wednesday, having played on Monday and Tuesday, but said that had not been possible, which could well factor into his selections for the clash against Wednesday.
"They're not all back, there's a couple missing at the minute," he said on Friday morning.
"Neil Etheridge and Junior Hoilett are not back yet. Hopefully we can get them back, we will have a look today, we are training a little later to see if we can get them back for training today."
Warnock revealed that Joe Ralls' thigh injury appears to have subsided, meaning he will be available for selection against the Owls, but Sol Bamba is likely not to be considered.
The manager is cautious of throwing Bamba straight back into the first team given his age, 34, and the severity of the knee injury he sustained back in March.
He will likely have to play in an under-23s game, which they are trying to arrange, before he is in contention for first-team selection.
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